Rails 2: Model.find(1) gives ActiveRecord error when id 1 does not exist

Question

I am using Rails 2.3.5 and in that if I give Model.find(1) and if 1 is not in the database, it returns ActiveRecord error. Should it just be returning nil

Answer 1

If you want the exception to be thrown in find_by_attributes flavors of the finder methods, you can use the bang! version of the method.

For example,

Model.find_by_category!(a_category_value)

will throw RecordNotFound if no match is found.

I found this to be DRY in scenarios like RESTful controllers, where I have a common error handler for the exception and I want my actions to behave consistently when a resource matching the given parameters is not found.